1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle control system used in a vehicle that is installed with an engine and an oil pump driven by the engine and is capable of traveling using power stored in a storage device.
2. Description of Related Art
A hybrid vehicle installed with an engine such as an internal combustion engine and a motor as drive sources is available. A hybrid vehicle is installed with a storage device such as a battery that stores power supplied to the motor. Power generated by a power generator driven by the engine, power regenerated using the motor during deceleration of the vehicle, and so on are charged to the battery. A plugin hybrid vehicle, which is a type of hybrid vehicle, is also capable of charging the battery using power supplied from the exterior of the hybrid vehicle.
This type of hybrid vehicle is capable of traveling using one or both of the engine and the motor as a drive source in accordance with an operating condition of the vehicle and so on. Accordingly, the hybrid vehicle is capable of traveling using only the motor as a drive source, i.e. while the engine is stopped.
In a traveling condition where the engine is stopped and only the motor is used as a drive source, exhaust gas is not discharged, and therefore a small load is placed on the environment. It is therefore preferable to enable travel in the condition where the engine is stopped as much as possible. Accordingly, a plugin hybrid vehicle in particular is more likely to be used while the engine is stopped in order to increase a time and a distance of travel using only the motor as a drive source, and as a result, an increase is likely to occur in a time during which an oil pump coupled to the engine is not driven. When the time during which the oil pump is not driven increases, an amount of oil supplied to lubricate a drive train and so on may decrease. Therefore, a technique for driving an internal combustion engine used as the engine forcibly when a predetermined condition is satisfied has been proposed.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2008-238837 (JP-A-2008-238837) discloses a control apparatus for a hybrid vehicle driving apparatus in which the need to supply lubricating oil to at least a part of a power transmission device using a lubricating oil supply device is determined on the basis of a distance traveled using the motor after halting rotational driving of the internal combustion engine, and the internal combustion engine is driven to rotate on the basis of the determination.